Freelancefolder

Are These 5 Mistakes Holding You Back from Freelance Success?

Posted August 18, 2009 in Business, Productivity

There is a lot of great freelancing advice out there, both on this site and on many others. Anyone who wants to make it as a freelancer has many resources available to help them with what they need to know — everything from dealing with problem clients, to finding them in the first place, to organizing taxes and so on.

In fact, there is so much good advice about what you should be doing that I think it’s helpful to look in the opposite direction — at things that might be holding you back.

In this post, I’ve created a list of 5 big mistakes that could be holding you back from freelance success. Make a little progress with these, and your freelancing will see some definite improvement.

Let’s get started…

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The Life Cycle of an Idea: From Concept to Reality

Posted August 12, 2009 in Inspiration, Productivity

Ideas are an important part of every freelancer’s world. Some ideas become reality, and impress clients or and make it big time, and other ideas just get buried deep into the pile of bad ideas.

How exactly do we make an idea into reality? How do we decide which idea we should act upon and which one’s we should let go? What is it that we need to do to make an idea take the leap from our brain into the world?

As freelancers we have to be creative. To be creative, we need ideas. This post will highlight some things that might help do just that. Call it the life cycle of an idea, which starts from the generation phase and ends with its completion in reality. The following steps are simple, but we often fail to recognize and use all of them to the full potential.

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3 Simple Methods for Discovering Your Purpose

Posted August 11, 2009 in Inspiration, Productivity

Being an entrepreneur is in a lot of ways similar to being an explorer. We set out on a long journey, regularly pushing our minds and bodies, and often have little or no idea of where the road will eventually lead us.

As an entrepreneur, though, it’s important—critical, even—to at least know the next few steps of your journey. You might have no idea where you’ll be in 5 years, but you’d better have a good idea of what you’re doing in the next few months — if you don’t your productivity and motivation are almost guaranteed to plummet.

In fact, the stronger your sense of purpose, the more you believe in yourself and what you’re doing right now, the more motivated and hard-working you’ll be. Think about your own experiences — when have you worked the hardest: when you were apathetic and not sure of direction, or when you were certain that your current project would make a big difference?

It’s that sense of purpose that is the primary driving force behind freelancers, entrepreneurs, business people, athletes, and many others — and in this article, I’m going to outline 5 simple methods that you can use to help refine and strengthen your purpose, passion, and direction.

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Why Every Freelancer Should Slow Down and Brainstorm

Posted August 7, 2009 in Business, Productivity

As freelancers, we tend to get in a rush. We get busy. We’ve got deadlines facing us. We don’t have time to waste… but we end up getting stuck in an efficiency rut.

I love to save time as much as the next person. One of the ways that I save time (and you’ve probably read about it here on FreelanceFolder) is by using templates and other automated time-saving methods.

Automated techniques can really help a freelancer become more efficient with his or her time. If you’re repeating a similar task very frequently, it really pays off to create templates or systems to help speed things up.

I have one client that likes to see their work formatted in a very specific way. To save time, I’ve created a blank template especially for this client’s projects. Using the template reduces the time that I spend on this client’s work by over 30%.

There are drawbacks, however, to relying too much on templates and other time-saving tools. While you may be saving time, your work could be losing out in innovation and creativity — and that’s where scheduled brainstorming comes into play.

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Open Thread: What Type of Computer Do You Use?

Posted July 31, 2009 in Business, Open Thread, Productivity

For most freelancers, particularly FreelanceFolder readers, work involves sitting in front of a computer.

Writers, designers, developers, and even many photographers use these magical boxes for just about everything they do. I personally average at least 8 hours per day on mine.

Like most other major choices, though, it seems there is no real consensus among freelancers on the best type of setup. Laptops are portable, but desktops are more powerful. PCs are cheaper, but Macs are much prettier (gross generalization). The point is this — everyone has their own personal needs and preferences, and choosing between the variety of options can be very difficult.

In this open thread, let’s try to help out anyone who is new to freelancing or in the market for a new computer. With all of our collective knowledge we might be able to provide some consensus on the best types of computers for various situations. Or, in the least, we can compare notes and provide some food for thought.

So, try to answer the following questions in the comments (or feel free to ask some of your own):

1. Desktop or Laptop?
2. What Operating System? (XP, Vista, OS X, etc…)
3. Why do you like or dislike your current setup?
4. For what situations would you recommend this setup?
5. Any other advice?

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15 Useful Twitter Tools For Web Workers

Posted July 29, 2009 in Productivity, Tools/Resources

If there was a popularity contest between social media platforms, I am sure Twitter would be the winner. Networking, trends, and search features all On its own, twitter is a great service, but without third party applications it wouldn’t be what it is today.

With this in mind, there are hundreds of third party applications to make twitter easier and better to use. But who has time to try them all? In an effort to streamline the list to only useful apps, I have created a list of 15 apps that should do the job, at least it does for me.

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Ten Tips To Stay Motivated — Even When You Really Don’t Feel Like Working

Posted July 27, 2009 in Inspiration, Lifestyle, Productivity

It’s a beautiful sunny day. The temperature is just right, and there’s a slight breeze blowing. You’d love to go outside and enjoy the sunshine, but you can’t. Once again, you’re stuck at your computer because you have to meet a deadline.

(Of course, you could take your laptop outside, but you’d still be chained to work and not really free to enjoy the outdoors.)

As a freelancer, you’ve probably experienced those times when you just don’t feel much like working. Personally, I know that there are times when staring at a computer monitor is absolutely the last thing that I really want to do.

It’s normal to lose your motivation for work from time to time, even if you totally love your job. Giving in to a lack of motivation, however, can lead to missed deadlines and lost clients. To run a successful freelance business, you have to stay motivated.

What’s a freelancer to do when there’s work to be done, but work is the last thing that he or she feels like doing?

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Is Freelancing Hurting Your Health?

Posted July 23, 2009 in Lifestyle, Productivity

If you’re not careful, your freelancing work habits can make you sick.

We freelancers, many of whom rely on our computers to make our living, are particularly vulnerable to to unhealthy habits.

At first it might seem that spending long hours at the computer without a break and relying on convenience foods for most of your meals allows you to get more work done. Temporarily, these poor habits may actually seem to increase your productivity.

But that increase in productivity is an illusion. Over time, unhealthy habits will take a toll on your health and ultimately on your business. An unhealthy lifestyle over the long-term is actually a very poor business strategy.

It doesn’t have to be that way — you can make healthy choices and succeed as freelancer. Here are five simple habits that will help you stay healthy and productive:

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Are You Undervaluing Your Freelancing Business?

Posted July 21, 2009 in Business, Inspiration, Productivity

Do you mind if I ask you a personal question?

Imagine that you were given the position of president of a big company. With your new responsibilities as the leader of a large company, would you change how you act?

Consider the following questions:

• As company president, would you change the way that you interact with others?
• As company president, would you be more careful with your time?
• As company president, would you be more mindful of how money was being spent?

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